A bit of culture, a bit of politics, a few photos, and way too much about transport.

Daniel’s end of month update

The whole separation thing is working out well. The kids are spending weekends with their mum, and she and I are getting on very amicably, and cooperating in making arrangements for her to move back into this area, so she can take the kids for more of the time, which will be good for all of us.

I’ve finally got hold of a copy of Bill Bryson’s latest book, courtesy of one of the Andrew Mitchells I know (the one who drives trams). Yes, I could have just gone out and bought "Down Under", but I have a curious dislike of buying hardback books (because I think they’re too damn big), so when Andrew offered to let me borrow his copy, I jumped at the chance.

So I met up with Andrew at work on Saturday and we had a chat while taking another spin in a tram, from the city to St Kilda and back again. I can see why he enjoys the job, especially when he humiliated the driver of a red-light-running four wheel drive that was about to become another notch on the tram’s bumper bar. I’m sure he’d much rather ding his bell a few times than have a prang and have to fill in a bunch of paperwork.

The book is hilarious, and I started reading it on the way home. Then I spent much of the rest of the weekend in the company of a lovely young lady I’ve been seeing rather a lot of recently (just about all of her in fact).

Back to the grindstone today. But I took a few minutes out of my morning for a spin over to Hawthorn Road to join the crowds watching the Olympic flame go by. Apart from the flame of course, there was the torch containing the flame, the runner holding the torch, and about half a dozen vans of equipment, TV cameras, and officials, several police cars, and large numbers of motorcycle cops. All that for one little flame. Still it was impressive, and I was a bit bummed that I wasn’t there early enough to get a souvenir sponsor’s flag.

This afternoon I went to the regular weekly meeting with the client company I’m currently working for. On the way I passed consumer watchdog DEAD SET LEGEND Alan Fels in Flinders Street. Then during the meeting it became apparent that somewhere in a related part of the client company there is yet another person called Andrew Mitchell. It would seem the world is full of them.